Pope Benedict gets an iPod

He may have been born a year after Bing Crosby cut his first
record but as the owner of a new iPod Nano, Pope Benedict XVI is
now more in tune with the masses.

The ultra cool gadget, the mid-range model of Apple's hot
selling digital music player, was presented to the Pope on Friday
by a group of Vatican Radio employees, according to the Catholic
News Service.

The 2GB Nano - a white model - came loaded with what was
described as "special Vatican Radio programming and classical
music" and was inscribed on the back. The model sells for $299 in
Australia.

The Pope is the second famous septuagenarian known to have an
iPod. Last year The Sun newspaper reported that Queen
Elizabeth II had bought a 6GB iPod Mini.

Prince Andrew, the 79-year-old monarch's second son, was
reported to be behind the move, having bought his mother a mobile
phone and taught her how to use it in 2001.

Vatican Radio employees bought the Pope his iPod to commemorate
his first visit to the station's headquarters.

"Computer technology is the future," the Pope is reported to
have said when presented with the gift by the head of the station's
technical and computer support department.

The news service said compositions by Beethoven, Mozart, Chopin,
Tchaikovsky and Stravinsky had been downloaded and install on the
player.

In addition, a sampling of the radio's programming in English,
Italian and German had been loaded.

These include a special 20-minute feature commemorating the
250th anniversary of Mozart's birth, radio drama on the life of St
Thomas a Becket and a feature on the creation of Vatican Radio,
with original sound clips of the inventor of the radio, Guglielmo
Marconi, and Vatican Radio's founder, Pope Pius XI.

The Catholic News Service said that once he "gets the hang of
the device's trademark click wheel", the Pope could also listen to
highlights from the Papal transition last April that had been
preloaded on the device.

Vatican Radio, which marked its 75th anniversary on March 3,
offers podcastsin eight different languages.